Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 373 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5O-04087

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact will be on Dumfries and Galloway Council of the UK Government’s decision to publish its Budget on the same day that local authorities in Scotland must legally set their rates of council tax.

Question reference: S5W-26992

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 28 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much was spent by each NHS board on child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in 2018-19, and how this compared with 2006-07, also broken down by the percentage change in expenditure that this represents.

The following table provides the information requested. The figures given have not been adjusted to account for inflation.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Expenditure (£000) 2006-07 & 2018-19
NHS Board	2006-07	2018-19	Percentage change
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	975	3,734	283.0%
NHS Borders	693	1,066	53.9%
NHS Fife	762	3,212	321.6%
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	11,570	17,676	52.8%
NHS Highland	664	2,942	343.1%
NHS Lanarkshire	627	6,121	876.2%
NHS Grampian	1,482	5,837	293.8%
NHS Orkney	17	44	159.5%
NHS Lothian	1,681	13,643	711.6%
NHS Tayside	3,536	7,184	103.2%
NHS Forth Valley	671	3,320	394.7%
NHS Western Isles	0	425	N/A
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	1,109	1,734	56.4%
NHS Shetland	0	309	N/A
Scotland	£23,788	£67,248	182.7%

Source: Scottish Health Service Costs, Report R300, R340, R04LSX, SFR 5.9 and SFR 8.3, ISD Scotland

Question reference: S5F-03921

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2020

To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on the impact of minimum unit pricing of alcohol.

Question reference: S5O-03990

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact could be on meat products imported to Scotland as part of a future UK trade deal of the reported plans by the US to introduce a system of self-regulation and policing for slaughterhouses.

Question reference: S5W-26851

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2020
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fergus Ewing on 7 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when the interim chief executive of South of Scotland Enterprise will be appointed.

I can advise that, following a process to recruit an interim Chief Executive for South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) from Scottish Government and its agencies, Nick Halfhide will be appointed. Mr Halfhide is currently Director of Sustainable Growth at Scottish Natural Heritage and will take up the post on 3 February 2020. We expect SOSE to begin the recruitment process for its permanent chief executive in the late summer of 2020 and Mr Halfhide will remain in post until the permanent chief executive is appointed.

Question reference: S5O-03914

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on establishing a process that will allow adopted children to have a legal right of emancipation from their adoptive parents.

Question reference: S5O-03853

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding levels of puppy trafficking through the port of Cairnryan and how much revenue has been recovered by HMRC from this.

Question reference: S5O-03834

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact will be on Dumfries and Galloway Council of the delay to the Scottish Budget because of the General Election.

Question reference: S5O-03774

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether an independent Scotland could allow people whose immigration status is being challenged through a tribunal or court to continue to work, study or volunteer.

Question reference: S5W-25896

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of properties in each local authority have had access to broadband in each year since 2014.

Due to the commercial nature of much of this information, the Scottish Government does not hold data on broadband coverage percentages. However, independent broadband analysis site, thinkbroadband.com, provides breakdowns of coverage percentages at Local Authority level. The following tables show coverage percentages from January 2014, when DSSB deployment began, to October 2019.

	Superfast coverage (30Mbps and above)
Local Authority	Jan-14	Dec-14	Dec-15	Dec-16	Dec-17	Dec-18	Oct-19
Aberdeen City	71.6%	83.2%	90.0%	93.4%	95.7%	96.5%	96.6%
Aberdeenshire	16.6%	44.3%	65.5%	73.0%	79.3%	81.1%	82.5%
Angus	58.8%	66.0%	71.5%	79.9%	84.2%	87.5%	88.0%
Argyll & Bute	0.9%	7.6%	41.9%	60.4%	78.1%	81.8%	83.0%
City of Edinburgh	90.5%	92.8%	93.4%	96.2%	98.3%	98.4%	98.5%
Clackmannanshire	54.2%	69.9%	77.8%	95.3%	98.0%	98.3%	98.1%
Dumfries & Galloway	17.0%	51.8%	65.7%	73.4%	81.0%	83.1%	84.7%
Dundee City	95.2%	97.2%	97.6%	98.3%	98.9%	98.9%	98.9%
East Ayrshire	48.5%	68.5%	78.5%	84.9%	92.6%	93.5%	93.9%
East Dunbartonshire	77.6%	80.0%	89.0%	92.0%	96.8%	97.7%	97.9%
East Lothian	31.9%	53.6%	71.2%	81.8%	88.3%	91.3%	91.6%
East Renfrewshire	84.6%	85.5%	89.1%	93.5%	95.9%	97.7%	97.7%
Falkirk	85.2%	87.2%	88.6%	92.4%	96.5%	96.6%	97.2%
Fife	52.9%	74.9%	83.2%	91.8%	95.3%	96.1%	96.3%
Glasgow City	75.2%	82.3%	91.2%	94.8%	98.1%	98.5%	98.7%
Highland	20.3%	39.1%	59.2%	68.3%	76.9%	78.6%	80.1%
Inverclyde	72.0%	79.9%	88.1%	92.0%	96.8%	97.4%	97.4%
Midlothian	44.0%	65.9%	70.3%	87.8%	94.0%	93.5%	93.5%
Moray	6.9%	52.8%	71.8%	76.9%	84.9%	86.3%	87.5%
Na h-Eileanan an Iar	1.3%	1.3%	25.4%	41.3%	64.5%	71.7%	77.3%
North Ayrshire	40.9%	61.3%	75.7%	89.0%	96.0%	96.3%	96.3%
North Lanarkshire	77.3%	82.9%	91.2%	94.9%	97.5%	97.9%	98.4%
Orkney Islands	11.1%	11.1%	35.9%	48.9%	64.4%	64.7%	65.2%
Perth & Kinross	39.3%	52.9%	61.0%	76.0%	82.8%	84.9%	85.8%
Renfrewshire	76.7%	80.8%	90.7%	93.6%	96.4%	97.6%	97.8%
Scottish Borders	20.8%	47.3%	59.6%	71.6%	80.1%	83.8%	86.0%
Shetland Islands	28.9%	28.9%	37.4%	60.0%	72.1%	73.7%	73.9%
South Ayrshire	44.9%	72.7%	80.0%	86.6%	92.8%	94.3%	94.8%
South Lanarkshire	70.2%	79.5%	86.4%	90.9%	94.7%	95.7%	95.9%
Stirling	56.5%	67.4%	73.6%	80.8%	88.3%	89.3%	90.9%
West Dunbartonshire	88.7%	91.9%	95.5%	96.7%	98.6%	98.9%	99.2%
West Lothian	63.0%	67.6%	81.5%	88.9%	96.2%	97.0%	97.2%

	Fibre coverage
Local Authority	Jan-14	2015	2016	2017	2018	Oct-19
Aberdeen City	72.7%	93.2%	95.5%	97.1%	97.5%	97.7%
Aberdeenshire	17.6%	78.2%	85.4%	90.8%	93.1%	94.4%
Angus	62.6%	78.3%	88.1%	91.6%	94.7%	95.7%
Argyll & Bute	0.9%	49.5%	71.6%	88.1%	91.1%	92.2%
City of Edinburgh	90.7%	93.7%	96.4%	98.6%	98.6%	98.7%
Clackmannanshire	55.9%	80.6%	97.5%	99.6%	99.8%	100%
Dumfries & Galloway	18.9%	79.9%	87.6%	92.6%	94.8%	96.1%
Dundee City	95.3%	98.0%	98.7%	99.4%	99.3%	99.4%
East Ayrshire	51.7%	86.5%	92.2%	96.5%	97.0%	97.4%
East Dunbartonshire	77.9%	91.5%	94.7%	98.6%	99.4%	99.5%
East Lothian	33.2%	76.7%	88.0%	93.8%	96.7%	96.9%
East Renfrewshire	85.7%	90.7%	95.1%	97.3%	99.0%	99.4%
Falkirk	85.6%	89.9%	93.8%	98.0%	97.9%	98.6%
Fife	53.4%	86.5%	95.2%	98.1%	98.8%	99%
Glasgow City	75.9%	92.7%	95.4%	98.3%	98.7%	98.8%
Highland	21.8%	73.0%	84.3%	91.4%	92.2%	93.6%
Inverclyde	72.0%	90.8%	93.3%	98.3%	98.9%	98.9%
Midlothian	49.0%	76.5%	91.2%	97.3%	97.2%	97.2%
Moray	7.1%	82.4%	89.3%	93.9%	95.5%	96.8%
Na h-Eileanan an Iar	1.6%	39.7%	59.4%	81.0%	85.9%	90.8%
North Ayrshire	43.3%	80.5%	92.3%	98.8%	99.2%	99.3%
North Lanarkshire	78.3%	93.8%	96.2%	98.6%	98.9%	99.3%
Orkney Islands	12.0%	44.0%	69.0%	81.9%	81.5%	82.6%
Perth & Kinross	40.0%	69.1%	85.1%	91.4%	93.4%	94.9%
Renfrewshire	77.0%	92.3%	94.8%	97.6%	98.6%	98.8%
Scottish Borders	23.1%	72.8%	84.1%	90.6%	94.0%	95.8%
Shetland Islands	35.1%	48.4%	78.0%	83.8%	85.2%	86.3%
South Ayrshire	46.4%	84.9%	90.8%	96.3%	97.6%	98.5%
South Lanarkshire	72.0%	91.5%	94.8%	97.8%	98.6%	98.8%
Stirling	58.6%	80.3%	87.8%	94.7%	95.4%	96.7%
West Dunbartonshire	88.8%	96.3%	97.2%	99.0%	99.3%	99.6%
West Lothian	64.4%	84.5%	90.6%	98.1%	98.6%	98.9%